Potato-planter.



'Wl A :SRI: POTATO PLANTER.

IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII AR. 28, 1907- A 941,449. Patented Nov. 30, 1909. 4EEEEEEEEEEEE 1.

wr/vEssEs ATTORNEYS 'Wl A! SEI POTATO PLANTEB.. Y

APPLICATION FILED MAB. 28, 1907. 941,449. A

Pat'ented NOV. 30, 1909.

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/NVENTOH WILLm/IAI-IALL, ER

ATTORNEYS W. A. HALL, SR.

IOIATO PLANTER. APPLICATION FILED 1143.28, 1907.

Patented Nov. 30, 1909.

4 SHEETS-SHEET 3.

w/TNEss'Es INVENTOI? WILLIAM AHALLBR..

AHORA/EY W; A. HALL, s.

PoTATo PLANTEB.. APPLICATION FILED MAB. 28,1907.

941,449, Patented Nov. 30, 1909.

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A 770/?NE YS :LLMMAHALLER WILLIAM A. HALL, SR., OF PARDEEVIILE,WISCONSIN.

POTATO-PLANTER.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Nov. 30, 1909.

Application led March 28, 1907. Serial No. 365,117.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, WILLIAM A. HALL, Sr., a citizen of the UnitedStates, residing at Pardeeville, in the county of Columbia and State ofWisconsin, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Potato-Planters, of which the following is a speci- Iication.

My invention is in the nature of an improvement on and simplification ofthe planter for which Letters Patent of the United States was granted meApril 24,1906, No. 818,956, and it consists in the novel constructionand arrangement of parts as hereinafter shown and described withreference to the drawing, in which- Figure 1 is a front elevation. Fig.2 is a top plan View. Fig. 2a is a detail section on line 22- a of Fig.2, and Fig. 2b is a sectional detail at right angles to Fig. 22. Fig. 3is a vertical section taken crosswise the axle on line 3-3 of Figs. land 2, looking in the direction of the arrow. Fig. 4 is a sectionaldetail of the potato` feeding devices, the section being taken on line 44 of Fig. 2. Fig. 5 is a sectional detail of the potato feeding devices,the section being taken on line 5-5 of Fig. 2. Fig. 6 is an externalview, in perspective, of the potato feeding devices and Fig. 6a is 'asectional perspective view of the receiving and planting devicesimmediately below the feeding devices and Fig. `7 is a verticaltransverse section on line 7 7 of Fig. 2 looking in the direction of thearrow on this line.

Referring to Figs. 2 and 7 A, A, represent the two running or drivingwheels, which run upon the ground and impart motion to the operativeparts of the machine. One of these running wheels,l see F ig. 7, hasrigidly attached to it a large gear wheel A which imparts a continuousrotary motion to a shaft A4 through the two small gear wheels A2 A3. Thegear wheel A2 is rigidly attached to the shaft A4t and is out of contactwith the gear A', but in permanent gear with the small wheel'A2. Thisgear wheel A2 is journaled inan adjustable frame A8 hung on the shaft Atand adjustable about the same to bring the gear wheel A2 into mesh witht-he large gear A, or take it out of Contact therewith as shown indotted lines in Fig. 7 when it is not desired to transmit the motion ofthe running wheels to the working parts. To throw the wheel A2 out ofgear, a lever B2 is fixed to shaft B parallel to and below the axle Band this lever has a lug see Fig. 2, which lug, when the lever B2 isturned up into the dotted position in Fig. 7, strikes against theinclined end of the supporting frame A8 and lifts it and the Wheel A2 sothat the latter is out of contact with the main driving wheel A.

Referring now to Fig. 2, the shaft A2, to which the gear wheel A3 isrigidly attached, is in constant rotation as long as the machine is atwork and this shaft is formed with a spiral groove a. On its endopposite the gear wheel A3 is another rigidly attached gear wheel A5which meshes with a larger gear wheel A6 fixed to a shaft A7 which turnsthe potato feeding devices carried by the hollow feed wheel orreceptacle D as hereafter described. The spirally grooved shaft A*t issurrounded by two sleeves C and Ca, Figs. 2a and 2b. The inner sleeve Cahas a lug Z near each end which travels in the spiral groove. On theouter ends of this sleeve are rigid ratchet wheels c. The outer sleevehas at its ends cams C, C, to which are pivo-ted pawls c engaging theratchet. The two sleeves C and Ca are retained within a yoke C2, Fig. 2,hung upon shaft Adt and bearing a gear wheel C3 and an attached handwheel C4. The gear wheel C3 travels along on a subjacent stationary cogtrack or rack bar C5, so that when hand wheel C2 is turned the gear C2rolls on the cog track C5 and carries the yoke Ca and the movablesleeves longitudinally over the spirally grooved shaft A2 as describedin my previous patent referred to and which it is not necessary tofurther describe except to say that as the sleeve C is adjustedlongitudinally over the shaft the lugs Z on the sleeve traverse thespiral groove a, as described in my previous patent, and causes thesleeve C to partially rotate and turn the cams C C so that they actsooner or later on the dropping devices hereafter described. Thisprovision is for the purpose of advancing or retarding the time ofdropping potatoes while crossing the field should any roughness ofground or other cause throw -the machine out of alinement with crossrows. I make no claim to these devices in this ease as they are alreadyshown described and claimed in my previous patent.

, which the Wheel revolves.

I will now describe the means for feeding and dropping the potatoes, oneat a time, reference being had to Figs. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.

D, Fig. 2, is a hollow wheel or po-tato receptacle rigidly attached tothe constantly rotating shaft A7. This hollow wheel or receptacle ismade double with a middle partition or web eZ, as seen in Fig. 5. Thisis for the purpose of dividing the wheel or receptacle into twocompartments, one on each side of the partition Z for planting two rowsat a time. I have illustrated, however, for simplicity sake, only meanson one side of the wheel for planting one row, the other side to besimilarly equipped for a second row. The right hand side of wheel D isclosed in by a stationary side wall D, beside This stationary side wallD has a chute D2 which on one side, projects into the wheel nearly tothe middle partition d. The wheel, see Fig. 4, has projecting inwardlyfrom its rim four, more or less, shelves cZ and beside these shelves arefour spurs Z2 which play back and forth through holes in the rim of thewheel. These spurs are formed on the ends of arms (Z3 having rockingaxes CZ4 parallel to the axis of wheel D and mounted in housings Z5 onthe exterior of the rim of the wheel. found around the rocking axes CZ*are spiral springs (ZG, Fig. l, which tend to throw the spurs inwardlyinto the wheel. These spurs are intended to pierce a potato at thebottom of the wheel, carry it to the top of the wheel and then dislodgeand drop it down the chute to be planted. This is accomplished asfollows, reference being` had to Figs. l, 4 and 5. The arm of eachpotato engaging device has an offsetting lug Zlwhich is arranged to rideon a stationary cam flange Z9 at the bottom and another one ZS 4at thetop. A hopper D3 is arranged laterally on the stationary side wall D andopens at the bottom into the wheel so that seed potatoes emptied intothis hopper pass into the wheel and drop to the bottom thereof at x, asseen in Fig. 4. As the wheel rotates in the direction of the arrow theshelves CZ always insure that a potato shall be directly above the lowerspur Z2 and as the lug Z7 rides on the stationary cam Z0 the spur ispulled outwardly until it is out beyond the rim of the wheel. At thismoment the further movement of the wheel causes the lug Z7 to pass offthe outer end of the cam flange (Z9, with the result that the spiralspring snaps the potato engaging device into the wheel and the spur,finding a potato, as at m, directly above it, impales it and carries itup as the wheel rotates. The other potatoes roll back over the shelf eZand remain at the bottom of the wheel. As the potato which has been thusimpaled reaches the top of the wheel it is dislodged and dropped asfollows. The lug ZT rides on the stationary cam (Z8 and pulls the spurZ2 out of the wheel, leaving the potato to drop into the stationarychute D2, as seen in Fig. 5. As the potato drops in the chute it fallsupon a tilting bottom D* pivoted at 3 to a deflector D5 pivoted at l. Aspiral spring 2 holds the bottom D4 up with its end against the insideof chute D2 so as to maintain delector D5 in a vertical position. Zhen apotato falls on D4 it is dropped down and also turns the deflector D5 tothe dotted position so that if a second potato drops it will be sentback over the top of the now inclined deflector D5 into the wheel again.This prevents two potatoes from passing into the same hill. The tiltingparts D" D are restored to the position shown in full lines in Fig. 5-by a toe all which is struck by a tappet arm E, Figs. 3, 5 and (3, bythe rocking of a shaft E to which said tappet arm is rigidly attached.The i'ock shaft E, Figs. l and 3, has at its ends rigidly attached armsFF, E2, whose outer ends are connected by a rod E3 and on this rod E thecams C press in rotating to rock the shaft E. As the rod E Fig. lextends entirely across the machine it will be seen that the cams C canact upon the same, to rock the shaft E, no matter what position thesleeve C and cams C may occupy ou the spirally grooved shaft A4. Theshaft E is rocked in one direction by the cams C and in the oppositedirection by a spiral spring S seen in Fig. l.

Zhen the potato drops out of the chute D2 it passes, see Figs. 3, G and(3, into a guide spout F and thence down into receiving box (i throughthe furrow opening plow Il which latter has an open bottom. This furrowopening plow H and receiving box Gr are suspended by hanger bars /t It.The front hanger bar /i is 'loosely connected to a front cross bar Istationarily fixed in the frame and the back hanger bar 71, is rigidlyattached to a rear cross bar B which also carries the rigidly attachedlever B2. When this lever is down, the plow H is in the ground as inFig. 8 and at work, and when the lever is up, as in dotted lines inFigs. 3 and 7, the plow H is lifted out of the ground and the gearwheels are disconnected. When the potato is received into the box G, seeFig. 6a, it is temporarily caught and held by a rocking shelf g which isbent at right angles and is hung upon an axial shaft g at the front ofthe box and has a projecting arm g2 in front to which is loosely hunorthe lower end of a lift bar J attached, see Fig. 3, to the forward endof an oscillating arm J rigidly fixed to the rock-shaft E, so that whenthe shaft E rocks backward it lifts arm J and bar J and pulling up onthe arm g2, draws the shelf g forwardly and upwardly, as in full linesin Fig. 3 and dotted lines in Fig. 6a, thus dropping the potato throughthe open bottom of the boat-shaped plow. At the rear end of theboat-shaped plow there are two inclined wheels or grooved rollers K K,Figs. l and 3, which press the dirt up to and cover the potato.

As the shaft E rocks to drop the potato it also operates-a marker forthe row, which marker consists of a curved and rearwardly extending armL, Fig. 3, loosely hung upon the horizontal shaft B. This marker arm Lis connected by a link bar IVI to an arm N rigidly connected to the rockshaft E so that as the shaft E rocks backward it forces arm N and linkbar M down and causes the marker arm L to make a dent in the groundimmediately over the last hill planted.

I provide also an indicator for enabling the operator to know if thecross rows are in line. This consists of an upright pointer arm Omounted on the rear end of a rock shaft P at right angles to and belowthe main axle and having a weighted arm Q, at its forward end. If thepointer arm is right over the mark in the last row planted then thecross rows are in line, and if ahead or behind it is corrected byshifting sleeve C around the spirally grooved shaft as in my formerpatent.

I claim- 1 l. A dropping device for potatoes and the like, consisting ofa hollow revolving wheel and one or more potato engaging devicesconsisting of a swinging arm with a spur on its end adapted to enter thewheel and having a laterally projecting lug and a rocking aXis withspiral spring both arrangedparallel to the axis of the wheel, and astationary side plate for the wheel bearing upper and lower camsarranged to act alternately upon the lugs of the potato engaging devicesto cause them to move back and forth into the wheel.

2. A dropping device for potatoes and the like, consisting of a hollowrevolving wheel with means for selecting a potato at the bottom anddropping it at the top, a stationary chute entering the wheel and amovable valve bottom to the said chute having a deflector arranged toform a temporary passageway between the upper part of the chute and thebottom of the wheel when the valve bottom is opened.

3. The combination with the potato dropping wheel, and its dischargechute with movable valve bottom and chute deflector; of a restoringdevice for said valve bottom and chute deflector consisting of a tappetarm acting upon the said deflector and valve bottom, a rock shaftrigidly connected to the tappet. arm and means for rocking the shaft.

4. In a planting device, the combination with the seed dropping andplanting devices; of a rock shaft for actuating these parts having rigidarms and a rod connecting the outer ends of said arms and a rotary shaftwith cams acting upon the said rod to rock the shaft in one directionand a spring for rocking it in the other direction.

5. In a planting device, the combination with the seed dropping devices;of a Subjacent boat-shaped plow having an open bottom and a receivingbox on top of it, an adjustable shelf at the bottom of said receivingbox and means for connecting said shelf with the driving mechanism topositively tip the shelf at intervals.

i WILLIAM A. HALL, Sn. Vitnesses IRVINE GROVER, E. G. GRovER.

